The Evening Blues - 2-3-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Texas blues guitarist Lil´ Son Jackson. Enjoy!
Lil´ Son Jackson - Roberta Blues
“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”
-- Lewis Carroll
News and Opinion
Worth a full read. This piece is just a classic. See my embedded comments.
How the Biden Administration Can Help Solve Our Reality Crisis
Hoaxes, lies and collective delusions aren’t new, but the extent to which millions of Americans have embraced them may be. Thirty percent of Republicans have a favorable view of QAnon, according to a recent YouGov poll. According to other polls, more than 70 percent of Republicans believe Mr. Trump legitimately won the election, and 40 percent of Americans — including plenty of Democrats — believe the baseless theory that Covid-19 was manufactured in a Chinese lab.
The muddled, chaotic information ecosystem that produces these misguided beliefs doesn’t just jeopardize some lofty ideal of national unity. It actively exacerbates our biggest national problems, and creates more work for those trying to solve them. And it raises an important question for the Biden administration: How do you unite a country in which millions of people have chosen to create their own version of reality? ...
[Oh my god! What are the elites to do? I know, call in some technocrats to have a meeting of experts! -js]
So I called a number of experts and asked what the Biden administration could do to help fix our truth-challenged information ecosystem, or at least prevent it from getting worse. Here’s what they told me. ... Joan Donovan, the research director of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, suggested that the Biden administration could set up a “truth commission,” similar to the 9/11 Commission, to investigate the planning and execution of the Capitol siege on Jan. 6. ...
Several experts I spoke with recommended that the Biden administration put together a cross-agency task force to tackle disinformation and domestic extremism, which would be led by something like a “reality czar.”
Several experts recommended that the Biden administration push for much more transparency into the inner workings of the black-box algorithms that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other major platforms use to rank feeds, recommend content and usher users into private groups, many of which have been responsible for amplifying conspiracy theories and extremist views. ...
[There's a lot more of these sorts of ideas some more dystopian than others. Then at the very end of the article where most people won't get (because tl;dr) the author stumbles onto something worth thinking about. This is a classic example of burying the lede and is precisely the starting point that this article should have launched from. -js]
Christian Picciolini, a former skinhead who now runs the Free Radicals Project, an organization aimed at pulling extremists out of hate groups, agreed. He said it was impossible to separate people’s material conditions from their choice to sign up for an extremist group or follow a deranged conspiracy theory like QAnon. “We have to treat this like we would any other social service,” Mr. Picciolini said. “We have to destroy the institutional systemic racism that creates this environment. We have to provide jobs. We have to have access to mental health care and education.”
In other words, if President Biden wants to bring extremists and conspiracy theorists back to reality, he can start by making that reality worth coming back to.
Newsweek Caught Lying For Biden About $2000 checks
'Now Is Not the Time to Count Pennies': Sanders Says GOP Relief Plan Won't Cut It, Urges Democrats to Keep Election Promises
Rejecting as "totally inadequate" the $618 billion coronavirus relief proposal that a group of Republicans presented to President Joe Biden at the White House late Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders said Democrats must keep the promises that delivered them unified control of government and pass an ambitious aid package on the scale of the public health and economic emergencies facing the country.
"Now is not the time to count pennies," Sanders (I-Vt.), the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said in an appearance on MSNBC Monday night. "The American people are hurting, and they're hurting badly. What worries me is so many, by the millions, of our people are giving up on democracy."
"They really do not believe that the government is listening or understands their pain, and can respond," the Vermont senator continued. "That is what we have got to do, right now." ...
Sanders, who has pressed the Democratic leadership to use the reconciliation process aggressively to pass key priorities, said late Monday that he is confident the Democratic caucus will have the votes to pass a strong relief bill without Republican support, if necessary.
While noting his view that the Biden relief plan "doesn't go far enough," the Vermont senator said the Democratic caucus is unified in being "sick and tired of seeing hundreds of cars lining up for food, kids unable to go to school, people not getting the vaccines as rapidly as they should."
"It would be totally unacceptable for any Democrat to renege on [their] promises," Sanders said of the vows of bold relief that helped Democrats take narrow control of the Senate. "That is why people are giving up on the political process." ...
Further angering progressives is a fresh Bloomberg report indicating that two of Biden's leading economic advisers, Heather Boushey and David Kamin, are internally expressing "reservations" about even the $1,400 payments and warning that "the checks will cost so much that there won't be enough left over in Biden's proposed pandemic relief bill for other priorities."
"There is no substantive case for this crap whatsoever," said The Week's Ryan Cooper. "This is neoliberal brain, worrying that the masses will get hooked on free government money and that will harm incentives."
Economist Claudia Sahm tweeted in response to the Bloomberg reporting that while "reasonable people can disagree" on the details of the relief package, "we need to move past debate and get this $1.9 trillion passed."
"We're in an and/both policy moment," Sahm added. "If you told me I had to choose between jobless benefits or checks, I would choose jobless benefits. We do not have to choose. Do it all. Get it done. (You promised!)."
Fox News Advocates Getting 2 Jobs Instead Of $15 Minimum Wage
Briahna Joy Gray: Dems FOOLISHLY Continue To Negotiate On $1400 Checks
Dems Threaten To Exclude Families Crushed By Pandemic
The nation’s biggest business lobby is pushing Democrats to slash COVID relief checks for middle class families, despite new census data showing that nearly half of those families have lost income because of the pandemic. Top Democrats are now reportedly considering excluding millions of those families from the checks, and President Biden himself has said he is willing to negotiate with Republicans on limiting eligibility for the checks.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which spent $82 million lobbying in Washington last year, sent a letter to the White House and Congress on Tuesday urging them to consider “targeting any additional stimulus checks based on income, loss of employment, or similar criteria.” The corporate lobbying group — whose members undoubtedly benefit from a desperate workforce — attempted to twist census data showing broad economic devastation to make the point that families earning more than $50,000 don’t need new survival checks.
“While the pandemic induced recession has created near unprecedented levels of hardship, the impact has not been universal,” the Chamber wrote. “The Census Bureau Pulse survey indicates that while a majority of households with less than $50,000 in income have experienced a loss of employment income, a majority of household with more than $50,000 in income — including those between $50,000 and $150,000 — have not experienced any loss in earned income.”
This is a highly misleading way to frame the census survey results. Recent census data shows that 45 percent of households earning between $50,000 and $150,000 have experienced a loss of employment income since March 2020 — including 48 percent of households earning between $50,000 and $75,000. Nearly a quarter of households earning between $50,000 and $150,000 say they expect to lose employment income over the next four weeks. ...
Senate Republicans on Monday proposed that Congress limit full stimulus checks to individuals earning up to $40,000 and couples earning $80,000 — a move that would deny checks to an additional 80 million people, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The White House indicated it doesn’t support the GOP’s proposed income caps, but Biden and his team have continually said they are open to further limiting eligibility. ...
At the same time, top congressional Democrats are floating new tax cuts that could primarily benefit the wealthy.
President Biden pushes Democrats to pass $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package
'Pressure Works. And He's Going to Need a Lot More': Manchin Backs Fast Track Process for Covid-19 Relief
Progressives stressed that the hard work of passing an ambitious coronavirus relief package is still ahead after West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin—the most conservative Democrat in the Senate—announced Tuesday that he will vote to move forward with an aid bill through the expedited budget reconciliation process, likely giving Democrats enough support to proceed with initial work on the desperately needed measure.
"We must address the urgency of the Covid-19 crisis," Manchin said in a statement on the reconciliation process, which requires a mere simple-majority vote.
Manchin went on to express hope for eventually achieving "bipartisan support" for the coronavirus relief bill despite the GOP's open hostility toward President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion proposal, which Republicans have countered with a plan that is more than three times smaller and devoid of key elements, from housing assistance to state and local aid.
A potentially decisive swing vote given Democrats' narrow control of the Senate, Manchin did not make any concrete commitments as to what he would be willing to endorse in an eventual aid package.
The senator did, however, vaguely warn that he "will only support proposals that will get us through and end the pain of this pandemic"—suggesting that he might oppose some progressive priorities as extraneous to the task of fighting the coronavirus emergency and economic crisis.
"Pressure works. And he's going to need a lot more of it," tweeted Shannon Stagman, co-lead organizer of Empire State Indivisible, in response to Manchin's statement.
Shortly after announcing his support for the procedural motion that will jumpstart the budget reconciliation process, Manchin said he opposes raising the federal minimum wage to $15—a key priority of incoming Budget Committee chair Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and a proposal that Biden endorsed in his opening coronavirus relief offer.
"No, I'm not," Manchin told reporters when asked if he is in favor of a $15 federal minimum wage. "I'm supporting basically having something that's responsible and reasonable. In my state that would be $11."
"Here we go again," responded Faiz Shakir, who managed Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. "Remember when Manchin initially declared he was against direct payments for people in his state, too? He moved his position on that, and he will need to do so on this one as well."
Krystal Ball: Will Populists FORCE Manchin To Get Out Of The Way?
What the science really says: Closing schools is vital to containing COVID-19
As over 10,000 Chicago teachers and staff are engaged in a struggle to oppose the city’s effort to reopen public schools, the entire US media is waging a campaign to pressure educators to resume in-person schooling. Every major national newspaper in the US, regardless of its political affiliation, has over the past week published statements falsely claiming that schools are safe to reopen. These reports incorrectly assert that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has declared that schools are safe. They slander teachers by claiming that educators’ concerns about safety are based on anti-scientific fear-mongering.
The crassest expression of this campaign was Tuesday’s editorial in the Chicago Tribune, alleging that teachers “ignore science.” The article asserted that teachers were falsely claiming “to be a voice for ‘the children,” while “actual science” is “making it harder for teachers unions to continue to justify staying home.” The Chicago Tribune editorial echoed the talking points from Friday’s editorial in the Washington Post, entitled, “The covid-19 danger does not lie in the classroom, but in the community.”
“Study after study has shown that schools can be safe,” wrote David Brooks of the New York Times. “A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just attested to this fact,” Brooks said, declaring the resistance of educators to schools reopening is a “wave of anti-intellectualism sweeping America.”
All three of these columns base their assertions on a misrepresentation of an opinion piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA ). None of these editorials and op-eds, which breathlessly declare that the CDC says schools are safe, cite the disclaimer at the bottom of the opinion piece they are referring to: “The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Even the Biden administration, which is at the forefront of the drive to reopen schools in the United States, felt compelled to distance itself from the media’s rampant misuse of the JAMA report and another study published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) journal.
In a press briefing Thursday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki made clear that these were not official CDC guidelines, adding that “the CDC hasn’t issued the formal recommendations or requirements on how all schools across the country can open. They did a report, as they do reports frequently, based on an area in Wisconsin,” stressing the report had extremely limited applicability to urban areas such as Chicago. In reality, the overwhelming preponderance of scientific evidence shows that closing schools, together with other vital social distancing measures, leads to a reduction in the spread of COVID-19.
'We were in the dark': why the US is far behind in tracking Covid-19 variants
As researchers around the world scramble to understand the dangers of several newly discovered variants of the deadly coronavirus, the US remains woefully behind in its ability to track the mutations, scientists say.
The federal government has had its “head in the sand”, failing to develop a coordinated surveillance system for tracking the genetic footprints of the virus, according to academic researchers, scientific panelists and private entrepreneurs, who say they have been urging US officials for months to make better use of the hi-tech resources already sitting in labs around the country.
Genomic sequencing looks at the entire genetic code – or genome – of viruses obtained from samples from infected patients. The technique allows researchers to watch for dangerous mutations and to track movements of specific variants, like detectives following footprints.
Most genetic variations are inconsequential. But to discover those with functional differences, like more transmissible variants first identified in the UK (B117) and in South Africa (B1351), the research is essential. Yet by Friday the US had only plotted and shared the genetic sequences of 0.3% of its coronavirus cases, ranking 30th in the world, behind countries including Portugal, Latvia and Sierra Leone, according to a tracker developed by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Some US states have had virtually no surveillance at all.
“We’re used to being No 1 and this technology is all over the country,” said Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport, who heads a coronavirus sequencing effort there. Instead, he said, when alarms were raised about the new mutation spreading rapidly in the UK, “we were in the dark. With so few samples, the detective work becomes more like seeing a mirage in the desert.”
A Coup in Burma: Did Military Seize Power to Avoid ICC Prosecution for Rohingya Genocide?
US triggers sanctions on Myanmar by calling military takeover a coup
The Biden administration declared on Tuesday that the military takeover of the government in Myanmar was a coup, triggering sanctions and a review of U.S. assistance to the country.
President Biden and senior administration officials had earlier condemned the military takeover that occurred Monday morning but refrained from immediately calling it a coup.
A State Department official said the designation was made following a review of Monday's events, when the military in Myanmar instituted a state of emergency and arrested democratically elected officials who were set to open the first parliamentary session following the November election.
The military had called the November elections fraudulent despite local and international observers saying they were largely free and fair.
The arrests on Monday included Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and leader of the ruling party, the National League for Democracy. President Win Myint was among the other officials apprehended by the military.
US Dismisses Iran’s Offer to Coordinate Return to Nuclear Deal
The US State Department dismissed an idea floated by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who suggested the EU could help coordinate the actions needed to be taken by the US and Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.
When asked about Zarif’s offer, State Department spokesman Ned Price said there are “many steps” the US has to take before engaging “directly with Iran” and before the US is willing to “entertain any sort of proposal.”
Price restated the Biden administration’s demand for Iran to return to commitments it agreed to when the JCPOA was negotiated. Iran’s argument against this demand is that since the US violated the deal, it is on Washington to return to compliance.
Price also stressed the need for the administration to consult with US allies, partners, and Congress on Iran before going forward.
Thom Hartmann: History Of American Oligarchy And How It ENDS
GameStop shares plunge as traders dump stock
Shares in GameStop plunged by 65% in early trading on Wall Street as the trading mania sparked by small investors, that sent its stock surging and cost hedge funds billions of dollars, lost momentum.
The struggling Texas-based video game store chain has been the focal point of a battle by small traders, using forums such as Reddit, to punish Wall Street hedge funds that have bet on certain stocks falling in value. GameStop shares hit a high of $482 last Thursday but slumped to $80 shortly after the market opened. They recovered to $117 by mid-session, but closed down 60% at $90. ...
Other heavily shorted stocks also targeted by amateur investors on influential forums such as WallStreetBets on Reddit are also in freefall. AMC Entertainment, the world’s biggest theatre chain and owner of Odeon in the UK, lost 55% shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street. It later made up some of those losses to trade at $8 by mid afternoon.
The tumble in GameStop’s shares indicates that the hedge funds betting against it, which had been caught in a “short squeeze” – a situation where they have been forced to buy more shares in a bid to stem their losses – have now closed out their positions.
Jeff Bezos Steps Down After Amazon Caught Stealing Tips
Jeff Bezos to resign as chief executive of Amazon
Jeff Bezos, billionaire founder of Amazon, will step down as chief executive, the company announced on Tuesday. Bezos, who will remain executive chair, will hand the reins to Andy Jassy, chief executive of Amazon Web Services, the company’s fast-growing cloud computing business.
The surprise news came as Amazon released its latest financial results. Few companies have thrived like Amazon during the coronavirus pandemic, and in the last three months of the year, the company recorded sales of more than $100bn for the first time. ...
Bezos has stepped back from the day-to-day running of Amazon in recent years to pay more attention to his other interests, including space exploration and his ownership of the Washington Post. But his departure as chief executive was unexpected. ...
The leadership change comes at a strange time for Amazon. While profits continue to surge, it faces pressure from workers who have complained of mistreatment during the pandemic, and increasing political scrutiny of the size and power of its business – not least at AWS.
Jeff Bezos to Quit, But Amazon’s “Predatory Business Model” Will Continue Unless Lawmakers Act
New claims of migrant abuse as Ice defies Biden to continue deportations
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been denounced as a “rogue agency” after new allegations of assaults on asylum seekers emerged, and deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the Biden administration’s orders.
Joe Biden unveiled his immigration agenda on Tuesday, and his homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate, but the continued deportations suggested the Biden White House still does not have full control of Ice, which faces multiple allegations of human rights abuses and allegations that it has disproportionately targeted black migrants.
A coalition of immigrant rights groups published affidavits from Cameroonian asylum seekers who they said were tortured by being forced to approve their own deportations. The asylum seekers described being forced to the floor and having their fingers inked and pressed on to deportation documents they had refused to sign.
An Ice plane deporting Cameroonian, Angolan, Congolese and other African migrants is expected to leave Louisiana on Wednesday, despite an order from the incoming Biden administration for a 100-day suspension of deportation flights.
Impeachment trial: Trump lawyers claim 'fight like hell' speech didn't incite riot
In a damning summary of the case against Donald Trump to be made at his impeachment trial next week, prosecutors from the House of Representatives on Tuesday submitted an 80-page memorandum documenting how the then president called supporters to Washington and set them loose on the US Capitol. Describing scenes of violence inside the Capitol in previously undisclosed detail, the prosecutors accused Trump of creating a “powder keg” of discontent among supporters who on 6 January became an “armed, angry, and dangerous” mob.
Lawyers for Trump issued a thinly argued 14-page document that said his speech did not amount to a call to storm the Capitol, and argued his trial was unconstitutional because he has left office.
In their memo, the House impeachment managers said Trump’s supporters had arrived in Washington “prepared to do whatever it took to keep him in power. All they needed to hear was that their president needed them to ‘fight like hell’. All they needed was for President Trump to strike a match.” ...
Trump’s lawyers said: “It is denied that President Trump incited the crowd to engage in destructive behavior. “It is denied that the phrase, ‘If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore’ had anything to do with the action at the Capitol, as it was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general, as evidenced by the recording of the speech.”
Andrew Yang, New York City's mayoral hopeful, tests positive for Covid-19
Andrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination now running to be mayor of New York City, has tested positive for Covid-19.
Yang, who recently said he would quarantine after a staffer tested positive, tweeted: “After testing negative as recently as this weekend, I have taken a positive Covid rapid test. I’m quarantining and adhering to public health guidelines until I can get back out on the campaign trail.
Sea level rise could be worse than feared, warn researchers
The rise in the sea level is likely to be faster and greater than previously thought, according to researchers who say recent predictions are inconsistent with historical data.
In its most recent assessment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the sea level was unlikely to rise beyond 1.1 metre (3.6ft) by 2100.
But climate researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute believe levels could rise as much as 1.35 metres by 2100, under a worst-case warming scenario. When they used historical data on sea level rise to validate various models relied on by the IPCC to make its assessment, they found a discrepancy of about 25cm, they said in a paper published in the journal Ocean Science.
Over 50 Water Protectors in Minnesota March Onto Line 3 Pipeline Easement to Stop Construction
After three protesters were arrested on Monday at a Minnesota construction site for Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, more than 50 water protectors on Tuesday marched onto an easement—with two people locking themselves to an excavator—and temporarily shut down work on the contested tar sands project.
"The group, led by Anishinaabe warriors from Camp Migizi, then gathered at a sacred site, which has been desecrated by the pipeline's construction, to pray," according to a press statement from Line 3 Media Collective.
"Our state laws are not working in the public interest and for the public good. We are endangering future generations… and that's got to stop," declared Charles King, one of the water protectors who locked himself to the construction equipment on Tuesday at an Enbridge worksite near Cloquet, Minnesota.
Two protestors were arrested Monday for blocking the entrance to a construction site while Jeff Nichols "climbed onto a section of the pipeline dangling over a trench," said the collective. "Jeff sat on the pipe for nearly five hours, preventing workers from putting the pipe onto frozen sand bags which would have damaged the structural integrity of the pipeline."
In a Facebook livestream from Camp Migizi, Jeff said: "It's not even a question. This one will leak. The sandbags are frozen. You guys have already received violations for that."
The Canadian company's efforts to replace an old oil pipeline with a larger one running from Alberta, through North Dakota and Minnesota, to Wisconsin have been met with fierce opposition from Indigenous and climate activists. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, has been criticized for allowing the project to continue, especially after saying publicly in February of 2019 that projects like this one "don't just need a building permit to go forward, they also need a social permit."
The actions this week followed an open letter to Walz signed by over 250 opponents of the fossil fuel project. The letter ran on a full page of the Star Tribune and was backed by dozens of lawmakers as well as recording artists such as Bon Iver, Bonnie Raitt, and Pearl Jam; authors; faith leaders; and other community organizers pushing state officials "to stand firm against the Line 3 pipeline."
"Since 2014, thousands of Minnesotans have shown up at hearings, talked to neighbors, written letters, and organized in their communities to oppose Enbridge's Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline," the letter notes.
A statement about the letter from Stop Line 3 warns that "the new 337-mile pipeline will exacerbate the climate crisis, threaten drinking water for millions, and disrupt the rights and communities of the Indigenous tribes in some of the state's most pristine and ecologically sensitive watersheds and landscapes in northern Minnesota."
Line 3 "violates the treaty rights of Anishinaabe peoples by endangering critical natural resources in the 1854, 1855, and 1867 treaty areas," Line 3 Media Collective explained Tuesday, adding that Indigenous communities have decried such projects not only for the impacts on their health and lands but also because of the well-established connection between the so-called "man camps" of pipeline workers and the ongoing epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
On Sunday Shows, the Only Biden ‘Promise’ That Matters Is Compromise
This Is Why They Attack Him - Putin Explains Why We Need New Economic Policies
Israeli Minister: US Will Never Attack Iran, Israel May Act Alone
110+ Groups Demand Biden Close Gitmo Without Delay
Inside the Brutal Power Struggle at Homeland Security
A Honduran Migrant Caravan Collides With the U.S. “Vertical Border” in Guatemala
Wall Street billionaire backed Republicans who later tried to overturn election result
Arizona fought restrictions amid a dire Covid surge. Navajo elder Mae Tso paid the price
The Lesson Of The BLM Protests: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
French employees donate their annual leave to help the homeless
Rising: Manchin COMES OUT SWINGING Against $15 Minimum Wage
Krystal and Saagar: Jeff Bezos STEPS DOWN As Amazon CEO As Anti-Union Efforts Increase
Saagar Enjeti: GameStop Was Just The Beginning. Let's BEAT The Hedge Funds Forever
Krystal and Saagar: CNN, MSNBC, Fox Ratings CRASH As Biden Takes Office
Rising: GOP TORN On Expelling Marjorie Taylor Greene From Committees
A Little Night Music
Lil Son Jackson - Gamblin Blues
Lil' Son Jackson - Rockin' and Rollin' (Rock Me Baby)
Lil' Son Jackson - Homeless Blues
Lil Son Jackson - Restless Blues
Lil Son Jackson - Blues Come to Texas
Melvin Lil' Son Jackson - Freedom Train Blues
Lil Son Jackson - Sugar Mama
Lil Son Jackson - Red River Blues
Lil Son Jackson- Bad Whiskey And Bad Women
Lil' Son Jackson - Upstairs Boogie
Lil' Son Jackson - Freight Train Blues
Comments
Academic media-censorship conference censored in toto by YouTube
https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-censorship-conference-censored-youtu...
And the answer is...
Use another platform. Invent, create or somehow mimic youtube so voices and issues
are still available. Any ideas?
People are moving to the site on the bottom
I keep forgetting how it’s spelled.
Remember it was Obiden that rescinded the Smith-Munda act.
Sam
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Probably most people are on rofkin now anyway
Jimmy, Rising, Graham Elwood. Lee Camp and others. So for now they have found a work a round, but internet providers will start cutting access to it and the other new ones next. And just think, the internet was supposed to be free and open for everyone. But just like our civil rights the f’cking government found ways to take them away.
I love Ritter,s response to that over inflated military goon who is bitching about how many people don’t join the military to "protect the freedoms that we ALL enjoy."
It’s in today’s OT.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
YouTube been busy today
1-
2-
3-
4-
WikiLeaks Shop's Facebook Page Unpublished For Alleged 'Community Standards' Violations
5-
I believe there was one more person who got demonetized.
On a happier note. Boy that sums it up huh?
This would be my luck right after I get one.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
How long before they shut down c99?
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
I think it is pretty straight forward.
The moment that the Federal grifters in congress rose up and threatened to yank the Tech Giant's indemnification from liability for any real or imagined 'damages' their content might inflict on an individual, group, or a commercial entity — social media responded by removing anything they could find that looked unorthodox or non-conforming. Anything at all that they did not understand. Any bold statements.
The correct response was to preserve the corporation and protect the shareholders from losses.
It's time to move on.
There's a lot more to ARPANET than the WWW.
There's plenty of room to build a separate Internet with no government or corporations.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
evening lotlizard...
the owners are very disappointed in the people.
they are telling you that it is ok to use social media for mindless chatter about events and especially for prattle about celebrities - but not for social organizing purposes that differ from their own. after all, that is their holy right as capitalist masters with private corporate structures.
they are letting us know that they have privatized the commons and that if we want one, we will have to build it ourselves.
So ya got yer homeless blues - no covid relief
yer gamblin blues -- Wall Street
yer restless blues -- Iran policy
and yer freedom train blues -- Myanmar
sounds like this Lil Son got the blues in Texas
Thanks Joe!
evening qms...
heh:
Seems like the biggest shithole country's assholes
make the holes so large that they all fall through them without noticing.
Damn it is hard just to read the headlines. I mean if Besoz quits why wouldn't he donate all this money, blow off all the rockets into the Haleakala vulcano and spend some nights as a homeless person at freezing temperature? It might help to clear up his fucked up mind. Double that for Elon Musk. These fuckers have to be made to disappear and their money confiscated. See, my Russian temperament shines through, heh. /s
I worked too hard for two days in the row, real hard body work, everything hurts and I will not excuse myself for my foul language. I could dream of hiring Besoz and Musky boy and let them work for me the same way they force their employees work for them. Can't wait to see them gone, bye, bye.
Thanks for the EB. i call it the foul swampy morass edition.
Good Night. Tomorrow is another day, sez some super duper wise voice in the back of my mind.
https://www.euronews.com/
See, I got company in my rage ...
[video:https://youtu.be/Ao9QhR4mkx4]
Jesse !!!
https://www.euronews.com/
evening mimi...
heh, you've got plenty of company. it's a world chock full of angry people.
it's funny, even the people who prey on others making billions of dollars stealing the products of others labor seem angry these days because they don't feel appreciated.
go figure.
I'd be happy
Jesse says 12 million a year for minimum wage. I'd be happy with 1 million. I'm not greedy.
Is it great yet?
So truth via Russiagate is no problemo
yet the real fact is they hate the truth, the Gamestop short story opened Pandora's Box as to what neolibcon truly is, nothing but a controlled fraud serving the elites/oligarchs/banksters/WS.
The $$$$ is becoming unstable as a result of the above, stay safe everyone and thanks for the Blues Joe, the news not so much.
Well, well, even Citadel was caught short.....-VBG-
Severe Dysfunction in Washington and Wall Street Puts the U.S. at Risk of Capital Flight
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: February 3, 2021 ~ There is recent evidence that the U.S. is already seeing capital flight. According to a January 24 report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, China beat out the U.S. in foreign direct investment inflows last year, receiving $163 billion versus $134 billion for the U.S. That was a radical change from 2019 when the U.S. received $251 billion in foreign direct investment versus $140 billion for China. Capital flight could accelerate this year if the craziness in Congress and Wall Street continues. Just ask yourself this, would you want to invest in a country that had scenes of a bloody attempted coup of the government featured on the front pages of newspapers around the world? Would you want to risk your savings in a stock market that has ceased to perform its two key functions: a pricing … Continue reading ?
Citadel Didn’t Just Bail Out a GameStop Short Seller; Citadel Also Had a Big Short Position in GameStop
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: February 2, 2021 ~ Politico reported yesterday that the House Financial Services Committee plans to call Vlad Tenev to testify on February 18. That’s the CEO of the online trading app known as Robinhood that has played a role in the controversy surrounding the bull raid (now turned bear raid) in the shares of GameStop. If that’s to be the only witness, you might as well call Ken Griffin’s personal shopper to testify. Griffin is the billionaire founder, CEO and majority owner of Citadel, which has been operating in the GameStop saga like a maestro from an orchestra pit. (For our previous profile of Griffin and Citadel, see here.) As Melvin Capital, a major short seller in the shares of GameStop was about to collapse as the stock soared, Griffin and Citadel’s hedge fund rode to the rescue, injecting $2 billion in cash into Melvin … Continue reading ?
Edit: Yep Joe they will grace us w/their astute knowledge on how to bestow upon the average human what they perceive reality to be.
it's worth a full read, and i will feature it tomorrow night. in some ways it's an alarming article, because you can see that a lot of the elites' intellectual firepower is focused on coming up with solutions to what they think that the crisis is.
sadly, i think that they are probably going to elide the central problem, which is that most americans day-to-day reality sucks, and attempt to attack the symptoms with predictable orwellian results.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Psst....
Gotta have a link to read it in full dude.
Umm look at the tweet I posted on this.
Just stop going to weddings and funerals and you’ll be fine. But yeah that was the plan. Empty the United States out of everything worth value and then move on to another country. Biden is means testing people’s income before they lost their jobs and the $75,000 cutoff is going down to $50k. It’s beyond silly that democrats are showing right off how much they hate being in control. When will their sycophants understand what they do?
Btw did you ever think you’d see an FBI tip line on DK? Or someone saying that we should send the Trump insurrectionists to Gitmo and lock them up for life? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it since the 6th. Shocking and unbelievable. I wish they could see how much they have turned into the people that they used to despise.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
The Martens are staying on top of Gamestop
Wall Street on Parade
As I speculated a few days ago from what I could see:
Here's the link, sorry about that
but the D's aren't sorry and should the $1400 die a death the D party
should surely follow. I imagine another consequence of this will be that we
see 2020 as a nothingburger.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Ahem....
Ruff day?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
here you go...
Severe Dysfunction in Washington and Wall Street Puts the U.S. at Risk of Capital Flight
Citadel Didn’t Just Bail Out a GameStop Short Seller; Citadel Also Had a Big Short Position in GameStop link is upstairs in the blogposts of interest section.
evening ggersh...
i think that (for anyone paying attention) the dollar has been on life support for quite a while, but the hype machine backing it had the advantage that due to the dollar being the world's reserve currency, it was in nobody's interest to see the dollar crash - so they just looked away and ignored the obvious systemic shortcomings.
i guess we'll see how long people can studiously ignore our failed state.
great sounds JS!
Hey Joe, and all,
Great tunes... great player. That seminal Rock me Baby is awesome. The profundity is cloaked in simplicity.
Just a heads-up, everything is going to be worse than researchers feared.
Thanks for the tunes!
Be well all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
evening dystopian...
heh:
yeah, but it will be worse in ways that they never imagined, i'm sure. that seems to be the way these things work.
Sith Lord Rumsfeld’s “known unknowns” & “unknown unknowns”… n/t
Battle of the oligarchs over spaaace...
Rick's over the top delivery drives me crazy (and that's not a very long trip). But the story is funny (or perhaps tragic). Musk wants to lower his starlink internet satellites down into Bezo's promised orbit for his future satellite network.
Just a few minutes get you the story...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNkxNhRsBh8&t=28s]
Neofuedalism at it most entertaining.
The string of YouTube deplatforming tweets SD showed above speaks volumes to censure's future.
Well thanks for the news and the serf music!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
it is unsurprising that our coddled billionaires act like unruly, demanding children telling
mommythe state to favor them over their ambitious brother. or for that matter, demanding thatmommythe state shut up the people that say upsetting, unprofitable things.have a great evening!
Good evening Joe, Thanks for the Evening Blues.
Really good tunes. Maybe we should just gather up a ton of selected blues and folk tunes and submit them to the nascent mini-truth for purposes of training their AI. Beyond that, I love this line:
Though, of course, none of the government actors and players have a real good grip on reality and thus won't know what it is they need to enhance and make attractive.
So the DHS OIG is in disarray. To quote Dorothy Parker; "How ,,, can they tell?" Really don't know whether to laugh or cry. The DHS has been out of control since day one with no repercussions; which is what happens when pigs investigate themselves, so what's the downside? This is allegedly a problem for Biden? I doubt it bigly. They, like He, work for the same folks.
we know which side you're on, boys,
we know which side you're on
life would be much better
if all of you were gone
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
i'm pretty sure that you're right about this:
i can imagine that in response to this crisis that the biden administration's reality czar would probably use the defense production act to ramp up the manufacture and distribution of fidget spinners, pet rocks and kardashian dolls to all americans.
Heh, especially the fidget spinners, at least while the
pandemic (or fatal casedemic, as the case may be) continues.
Just got an e-mail:
We just registered the People's Party in California!
from: The People's Party organize@peoplesparty.org via mailchimpapp.net
now they just need 80,000 people to register as people's party to get a ballot slot and all that. Heh 80K out of 22 million should be possible, one would think.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
heh...
i would think that 80k in a state like california ought to be child's play if the party can come up with a decent platform.
i would expect a lot of opposition and dirty tricks from democrat dead-enders though.
Don't think they even need a platform. I remember
when we were working to get Peace and Freedom on the ballot, a big part of the platform was "We need a third party in this country". Fact is, we need many, our populace is diverse, as are its views. Does Baskin-Robbins have but 2 flavors?
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I bet I know who that is
I don’t remember his name but he was Biden’s propaganda czar iirc. And he is still saying that free speech should have limits. He says it worse than that. Can’t remember where I read it either. But 5 bucks says that’s who it is.
Isn’t it funny how rich people don’t bat an eye when they make hundreds of millions per hour or $13 million a day like Bezos did. No it’s just poor people who can’t make much an hour because then they might rise out of poverty and the elite can’t have it.
Mitch Manchin or Joe McConnell...take your pick because they both fill the same role. They are the two prominent roadblocks to good legislation and people keep their anger focused on them instead of the things members can do to bring them in line. Just more Washington Generals....kabuki bs.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
hmmm...
richard stengel?
Aye
That’s him.
How was my thoughts on GameStop? Did I get it wrong?
This article is kinda funny. It describes all the twists and turns AOC has in her story.
She said that rioters entered her office and she had to hide in her bathroom. A capital police came by to rescue her, but he looked at her with lots of anger and hostility and it just‘didn’t feel right'.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/alexandriaocasiosmollett-trends-twit...
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
this is the part about gamestop? (sorry, i lost track of what you were responding to)
i completely agree, spot on.
yeah, i am not into piling onto aoc about what she experienced. regardless of what actually happened, i think that she has been honest in reporting what she perceived and felt. i think that she did have a traumatic experience, and while her telling of it is disjointed and inarticulate in places, that's probably appropriate.
there are lots of tough questions that i would love to pose to aoc, since i have diminishing faith in her intentions regarding progressive legislative action and in light of her recent experience i would love for her to review her support for juan guaido. but, i want to be fair and give her the benefit of the doubt about her experience of the capitol incidents.
Im sorry
I forgot to include my question. I won’t bore you with the details..
What does that mean that the hedge funds closed out their stock and then sold it? They bought time to cover their bets and after they did then they bailed and it ended up hurting the Reddit guys?
I just saw that the guy who is behind GameStop lost $19 by holding it too long. But he started with $50,000 2 years ago and still has $9 million so I think he’s okay.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
i think that what happened is roughly this.
robinhood shut down trading in gamestop stock. this caused the stock price to fall. this allowed the hedge fund bastards to purchase stock to cover their positions at a much lower price than the top of the market. further, it is likely that the price of the stock would have continued to escalate if robinhood hadn't intervened in the way that it did.
so, the hedge funds settled up on their positions, meaning that if trading restarted, the escalation in price would no longer squeeze them (causing them to lose money).
how much it hurt the reddit guys depends on what price they bought in at and what price either they were able to sell at, or whether (if they are holding the stock longer term) the price continues to exceed their basis (what they bought it for). obviously, the earlier people bought in, the better off they are. there are probably a bunch that are considerably richer than they were before, though maybe not as much as they could have been.
“Way of the Bern” thread re #AlexandriaOcasioSmollett on Twitter
https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/lby3dv/alexandriaocasiosm...
And a Zero Hedge post also, re #AlexandriaOcasioSmollett trending on Twitter:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/alexandriaocasiosmollett-trends-twit...
The Capitol where the 30–50 feral hogs were ≠ the Cannon Office Building where AOC was… but things are complex, words are slippery, and goalposts highly mobile.
Love and deeply appreciate AOC; she's young, brilliant
and pushing the establishment for the betterment of all.
Have no problems with her or other person's fomenting love and understanding of the human condition.
Thank god she's earned a MSM pedestal among today's environment of freaks, especially.
...
Forgive my manners, Good evening, joe.
Like Obama or Kamala Harris, she’s a good match for, and quite
representative of, a certain kind of follower of Democratic-party political developments. And like Obama and Kamala Harris, I’m sure she’ll go very far.
She's not a racist as far as i can see, that's good,
she brushes her teeth, that's good. Don't recall her saying she was a follower of Obama or Harris as if that would mean something anyways. She stands tall as a human being trying to represent the best qualities and help citizens improve their lives. Not an easy task, anytime, much less in this horrific freak show environment. Period.
As you can see, I did not say AOC is a follower of Obama or K.H.
If you look again, you’ll see that I said that AOC is a good match for / is representative of — that is, she appeals to — a certain kind of follower of Dem-party political developments.
Some will be the kind of person who find her convincing, others won’t and will find some aspects of her self-presentation phony, and that’s fine either way.
post in wrong place: moved
Map showing how far away from “threat” Katie Porter and AOC were
https://www.reddit.com/r/jimmydore/comments/lc89wq/aoc_got_caught_gaslig...
The picture of AOC in the gray sweater miming fear seems to be a “re-creation,” in other words, posed. Who has time to set up self-portraits like this for Instagram in the midst of genuine unfolding events?
Hey, joe!
Greatly appreciate this round up of news and opinion.
Oh, and the music! Of all things, the Rondo Ala Turka on the Jimmy Dore video struck some chord with me. I played it on the piano a million times when I was otherwise bored. I was bored a lot in my youth.
I have had a rash of cases that raise issues of dead babies and spouses. I swear, people out there in the world are crazy about drugs and money, or both.
People need to take deep breaths, think things through.
The article about Guatemala and Honduras hurt me to the core. I have been to Guatemala twice, Honduras once, and want those marvelous people to survive and thrive. Hondurans should be assisted by US funding. The cartels are brutal there, as the were and maybe still are in Columbia, yet another country I love with all my heart.
The good news is that on this day, I am still solvent, and TLOML is, unless I have no true ability to observe, is happy and safe.
Have a good one, and dodbe the virus du jour as well as possible.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
sorry to hear about the spate of unpleasantness in your caseload.
our relations with those folks south of our border needs to be completely rearranged. those people and countries and people need a break from our unceasing oppression.
glad to hear that everybody down there is still keeping their head above water and their bodies above the grass.
have a great evening!
Sorry for the misspellings
Yeah, we are doing really well, considering the general public in our environs still think the "Wuhan Flu" is a hoax, and freedoms, and...basic bullshit.
I never forget, or stop thinking about dead babies or spouses. The local cops aren't exactly helpful. I think I have 3 cases with a 4th that could get out of hand very quickly. Been there, done that.
I will shake it off for the night, deal with it tomorrow.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
On a lighter note:
Trump Admin cheapskets DC restaurants (except possibly those in his hotel) not gonna miss the Trump team. The same might be true for the Secret Service as its workload has been lightened.
Winning through riots—a BLM activist on why she supports looting
https://www.wbez.org/stories/winning-has-come-through-revolts-a-black-li...
Reactions will of course vary widely as to whether this has aged well or not; how blatant a double standard there is for different categories of protesters; and the degree of validity various ideas have in trying to justify that double standard.